The British Computer Society (BCS) has introduced a skills course to help people overcome their fear of computers. According to BCS, nearly a third of the UK's population are being left on the sidelines because of a "genuine fear of attempting to use a computer".

IBM boss Sam Palmisano will spend more than $1bn to lure software developers back onto IBM software platforms. He wants IBM's software division firing on all cylinders ahead of this year's expected upturn in the global IT market.

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The controversy surrounding the open sourcing of Java continues unabated, writes Bloor Research analyst Robin Bloor. Printed below is an open letter from Rod Smith (VP, Emerging Technogies, IBM Software Group) to Sun, suggesting that it should be made available to the open source community. Officially, the letter was sent to Sun's Chief Engineer Rob Gingell. The text has been very slightly edited:

UK-based email filtering firm Avecho is something of the enfant terrible of the anti-virus world. Since forming 18 months ago, it has consistently attacked the scanner approach and business model of traditional AV firms.